Running Lesson, Learned: A Quickie Run Is Better Than None

Alright you guys, I have both good news and bad news. As I've told you, I'm training for my first half marathon in April, and there's definitely been some ups and downs. Last week I panicked to you about how I used up all my rest days but promised there forward to stick to a week's worth scheduled runs. And that's where the good news comes in: I ran every day that I was supposed to last week!

I started by planning out my week’s worth of exercises: Monday and Tuesday after work, Wednesday, which involved an early AM jog (so I could enjoy happy hour later), and then there was Saturday, when I usually feel like being lazy, I ditched my usual brunching with friends routine and ran Central Park.

While this may all sound good, it’s probably because I haven’t gotten to the bad news. Although I did run on Saturday, I didn’t do the full ten miles my Nike training program called for. But I’m not going to beat myself up about it.

Backing up for a moment, my younger sister was in town to visit and although I had every intention of dragging her along for all ten miles, my roommate delicately pointed out that perhaps a long, slow run wasn’t the best way to show her the city. But, I promised you guys that I would get my workout in, right?

So even though I’d decided that I wouldn’t force her to run the full ten with me, my sister helped encourage us, and made sure we still completed a challenging run. (Sometimes I swear, she’s like my little personal trainer.) We stopped here and there for pictures (duh), but we spent the majority of the run doing interval sprints and racing each other. And since it’s my little sister, I obviously couldn’t let her win.

Point being: Even though we didn’t do all ten miles, we still got out there — and I ended up feeling really good about our run, even if it was shorter than planned. A quick workout is better than none at all. But, I can tell you this much: I have no plans this week and that means my weekend is all about conquering that ten-miler. Like, no matter what.